World Foundry
World Foundry is a complete open source (GPL) 3D Game Development Kit, originally developed as a commercial product, that enables non-programmers to create 3D environments and games. It combines a powerful 3D engine with an external level editing system.
The system is extremely modular, and, through its Tcl scripting capabilities, the engine is capable of very varied behavior without changing the engine itself. This gives designers a large amount of freedom and flexibility. There is also a sophisticated, unique camera-handling model, allowing for dramatic camera motion during game scenes.
World Foundry is a Game Development Kit, meaning it provides tools and workflows designed to produce a complete 3D game.
- Tools to package and distribute your entire game as a single file on CD-ROM or download.
- Level editing tools
- Visual editing of object attributs for assigning hit points, damage values, physics parameters, etc. Click on the object, click on the parameter name, and set its value.
- Large selection of pre-built game objects: spikes, missiles, platforms, enemy generators, etc., which can be used by pointing-and-clicking in the level editor
- New game objects types can be added easily by engine programmers
- Tcl scripting for creation of game logic by the level designer
- Director-based camera model for in-game cut-scenes (machinima) or sophisticated camera control (zooms to focus in on the interesting happenings in the scene), it can even smoothly transition from 1st person to 3rd person.
- Streaming of large worlds from single file on CD-ROM or hard drive - the level's assets are loaded as needed
- Efficient memory and CPU usage. World Foundry originally had to run within the limited resources of the Playstation I, meaning that World Foundry can run on lower-end PC hardware.
